Battle of Bregalnica
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| Battle of Bregalnica | |||||||
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| Part of Second Balkan War | |||||||
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| Combatants | |||||||
 Kingdom of Serbia Kingdom of Montenegro |
 Kingdom of Bulgaria |
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| Commanders | |||||||
| Field Marshal Putnik General Petar Bojović Prince Aleksandar Karađorđević General Živojin Mišić |
General Savov General Ivanov General Kočevski |
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| Strength | |||||||
| ca. 194,000 men, 235 guns (104 Infantry Battalions, 34 Cavalry Companies, 62 Artillery Batteries) * Montenegrin division ca. 13,000 men, 6 guns and 24 machineguns |
ca. 130,000 men, guns (100 Infantry Battalions, 6 Cavalry Regiments, 63 Artillery Batteries) | ||||||
| Casualties | |||||||
| total 16,620; of whom 3,000 killed | est. unknown, probably significantly larger than Serbian | ||||||
| Second Balkan War |
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| Kilkis-Lahanas - Doiran - Bregalnica - Kalimantsi - Kresna Gorge |
The Battle of Bregalnica was fought between the Kingdom of Bulgaria army and the Kingdom of Serbia during the Second Balkan War.
Contents |
[edit] Introduction
After the First Balkan War, Serbia was prevented by the major powers (esp. Austria-Hungary, fearing Serbia's growing strength and its influence on the majority of its population which was Slavic, especially southern Slavs: Slovenes, Croats and Austrian Serbs - Austrians and Hungarians were both minorities in both halves of their dualistic realm). On the other hand, the Bulgarian Army did conduct the costliest campaign in the war: approaching Constantinople and the symbolic value of Edirne (Ottoman capital from 1365 until 1453 when it was transferred to then conquered Constantinople) was certainly the front where the majority of Turkish forces was concentrated. After the war, the Bulgarian animosity towards the Serbs grew especially due to the Serbian insistence on a compensation for the loss of access to the sea when its army was forced to abandon Shkodër (Skadar slavic) with the territory in Macedonia west of Vardar, around the lake Ohrid and Bitola. Bulgaria showed no intention that it was prepared to give in to Serbian demands and to revise the original pact on rebus sic stantibus legal grounds. This put Greece and Serbia on guard, being aware that the possibility of war was becoming inevitable, because Serbia had no intention of giving up the lands it conquered in Macedonia. These two countries signed a military convention on June 2, 1913, and made all the necessary preparations for resisting any aggression on Bulgaria's part.
[edit] The Battle
At one o'clock in the morning of June 30, without a previous declaration of hostilities, Bulgarian 4th Army crossed the Bregalnica (a tributary of the Vardar) and attacked the positions of the Serbian 1st Army. A violent battle ensued, lasting for several days; at some points the Bulgarians, thanks to the suddenness of their offensive, were temporarily successful, but gradually the Serbs regained the upper hand and by July 1 the Bulgarians were beaten. The losses were very heavy on both sides, but the final issue was a complete triumph for the Serbian Army.
[edit] After
The Battle of Slivnitsa was avenged by the battle of the Bregalnica, the defeat which lurked upon the Serbian Army and, which was the cause of the optimism of Turkish central command and its Vardar Army operational plan during the First Balkans War. After a triumphant campaign of one month, in which the Serbs were joined by the Greeks, Bulgaria had to bow to the inevitable. The Romanian Army invaded northern Bulgaria, bent on maintaining the Balkan equilibrium and on securing compensation for having observed neutrality during the war of 1912-13, and famine reigned at Sofia. It should also be noted that epidemics of both typhus and cholera decimated Bulgarian ranks (later was also transmitted to Serbian troops during the Battle of Bregalnica, causing an estimate 5,000 deaths in Serbian ranks - number higher than those killed in the battle itself). A conference was arranged at Bucharest, and the treaty of that name was signed there on August 10, 1913 (see the Treaty of Bucharest, 1913). By the terms of this treaty Serbia retained the whole of northern and central Macedonia, including Monastir and Ohrid, and the famous sanjak of Novi Pazar was divided between Serbia and Montenegro. Some districts of east-central Macedonia, which were genuinely Bulgarian, were included into the Serbian territory, as Serbia naturally did not wish. But, after the disquieting and costly experience of June and July 1913, leaving those districts in the Bulgarian hands would have given them another chance of separating the Greek and the Serbian armies by a fresh surprise attack, and the further the Bulgarians were kept from the Vardar river and railway, the less the likelihood of that happening.
[edit] References
- Savo Skoko Vojvoda Radomir Putnik Vol.1; Beogradsko Grafičko-Izdavčki Zavod, 1984.
[edit] Notes
- The numbers of the strength of Serbian Army do not indicate the exact strength of the forces deployed during the Battle of Bregalnica but rather the entire strength of the Serbian Army in Macedonia (the Operational group South, which included the combined 1st and 3rd Armies) at the beginning of hostilities.
